Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy might give me a moment. We have jumped quite a few questions because people are not here this morning and I want to get my folder in order. I thank him for raising the issue. The research and development tax credit allows companies to claim a 25% tax credit in respect of expenditure incurred on qualifying R&D activities.

To conclude our conversation of a few moments ago on the credit unions, if there is anything the Deputy wants to contact me directly on I would be very happy for him to do so. We can take up any individual issue relating to the credit union movement. On levies, since we came to office, this Government has reduced the levies by 53%. It is a phenomenal reduction. I understand people would prefer to have little or no levies but it is important the credit union movement and credit unions themselves have adequate resources to meet all their requirements. We saw last week's AGM was mostly consumed with the issue of funding potential deficits in the pension scheme and I think the credit unions are dealing with that.

Returning to the current question, the programme for Government, Our Shared Future, recognises the importance of research, development and innovation as these are recurring themes across a number of the mission aims. Specifically in relation to small business taxes, there is a commitment to continue to encourage greater take-up of the R&D tax credit by small domestic companies by building on recent changes and examining issues with respect to preapproval procedures and reduced record keeping requirements.

A review of the R&D tax credit is taking place during 2022, alongside an evaluation of the knowledge development box. As part of this review, my officials published a public consultation relating to the operation of both reliefs. The consultation documents include questions on the interaction by small and medium enterprises with the R&D tax credit. The purpose of this public consultation is to consider the current challenges facing firms that are active in the R&D and intellectual property, IP, space as well as the implications of recent domestic and international tax reforms for these two reliefs. It is a fantastic scheme for the businesses that do it. Depending on their profits they can get a cash payment back to the company and if their taxation situation does not allow them to get it by way of tax they can get it back directly as a credit.

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